New chapters of Britain’s Olympic story are being written on a daily basis at the London Games, and the story of Aug 9 is one of three women who embody the Olympic ideal in sports that are polar opposites.

Despite the contrasts, the three women shared an unwavering determination to reach their goal.

When Leeds-born Adams first started to dream of glory in boxing, it barely existed in an organised form for women. Her first bout came when she was 13, but opponents were so rare she had to wait another four years for her next fight.

As an adult, her career was scarcely any easier. While male champions are household names and make millions, Adams struggled for both recognition and money, working as a builder and an extra in television soap operas to make ends meet.

Despite being highly accomplished as a boxer, she was denied the chance of striving for the ultimate sporting achievement, an Olympic medal, because women’s boxing was not an Olympic sport.

In 2009 she fell down a flight of stairs, injuring her back so badly she was bedridden for three months, but she has completed her return to fitness in spectacular style.

Jones was introduced to taekwondo by her grandfather to keep her out of trouble. She had “started to get a bit naughty” when she was eight, so Martin Foulkes took her to a local club as an outlet for her energy.

Jones rapidly rose through the ranks, but her career almost stalled when she could not afford to go to Singapore for the Youth Olympics in 2010. Her neighbours raised the £1,600 she needed to make the trip.

Dujardin, of Leighton Buzzard, Beds, has also been fighting her own battle to keep her sporting ambitions alive.

Despite her aristocratic name she had few of the advantages of other would-be equestrians.

Her fellow medallist, Laura Bechtols­heimer, is the granddaughter of a billionaire property magnate who is one of the 200 richest people in the world, but Dujardin traipsed around local auctions buying cheap ponies.

She drove her mother “nuts” in her determination to compete at higher and higher levels. She admits that she “didn’t go to school much” and could not remember the name of her school [it was Vandyke Upper School, a comprehensive in Leighton Buzzard].

It was only when her mother, Jane, inherited a small amount of money from her own mother that the family could afford to buy Dujardin her first horse, and her destiny was sealed.

She went to work as a stable hand for Carl Hester, who taught her the art of dressage, and yesterday she turned the tables on her teacher by beating him and denying him an Olympic medal in the process.

“It’s unbelievable,” she said. “I’ve always known that my horse could achieve this but with the atmosphere and expectations, actually doing it is something else. To come here and win doesn’t feel real.”

Adams was also overwhelmed after she laid to rest all the years of adversity with a ruthless display in the flyweight competition.

She dominated the world champion, China’s Ren Cancan, from start to finish, knocking her down in the second round and winning by 16 points to seven.

“I’ve dreamed about this all my life, since I was a little girl watching my heroes Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard,” she said.

Jones greeted her victory over the world champion by screaming for joy. As the clock reached zero at the end of the final round, she ripped off her headguard and threw it towards the roof of the Excel.